At present, a home network can be accessed by virtue of multiple network technologies, for example: Ethernet Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3, Power Line Communication (PLC), Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) technology, and each access technology corresponds to a Physical (PHY) layer and a Media Access Control (MAC) layer of a network system model. The convergence of the heterogeneous network technologies is a basis for realizing the information sharing and seamless connection of the home network.
FIG. 1 is a structure diagram of heterogeneous network convergence in prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, equipment 1 and equipment 2 are home network equipments using three MAC layer and PHY layer access technologies. Each network access technology uses a different communication media, media control access mode, transmission frame format and the like from those used by another network access technology, so that technologies for PHY layers and MAC layers of corresponding network systems are different from each other. Therefore, when multiple network access technologies are implemented on one equipment, a convergence control module is required to realize the coordination and scheduling of various MAC layer and PHY layer technologies to realize seamless technical convergence. Each equipment corresponds to a convergence control module, and each convergence control module can coordinate and manage at least two MAC layer and PHY layer function modules.
At present, the most common security configuration for home networking is implemented by inputting a password to a network equipment by a user, and although there is security configuration supporting user password input in the MAC layer technologies such as PLC, MoCA and WiFi, authentication and key management processes in various MAC layer technologies process the user password input procedure differently, which causes the non-interworking of various security management processes. For example, assuming that the equipment 1 and the equipment 2 in FIG. 1 are configured with a same user password, if the two equipments are connected only through a PLC link, the equipments process the user password according to an authentication and key negotiation process of the PLC, and calculate a link Encryption Key (EK) of the PLC; and if the equipment 1 and the equipment 2 are connected by virtue of three MAC layer technologies, the two equipments have to use the user password to perform authentication and key negotiation processes specified by the three MAC layer technologies, so as to obtain link EKs of the three links respectively. That is, the security authentication and key management process in the prior art is performed for each MAC layer interface on the network equipment rather than for the equipment itself; and authentication and key management methods for each MAC layer technology are different from one another, so that the authentication and key negotiation process specified by each MAC layer technology has to be performed when the network equipment is connected by virtue of multiple MAC layer technologies, which inevitably causes calculation resource waste in an authentication process.